Happy Birthday Yuri.

          Happy Birthday Yuri. It is your 77th birthday.

          Klushino is a small village in Russia, hardly known to anyone. But it has rocketed into world fame thanks mainly to one person---Yuri Gagarin who was born in this village. The first man to fly into space was born here on March 9, 1934 and since then space enthusiasts from all over the world have been flocking to this village and visit the house where Yuri was born which has turned into a Yuri Gagarin museum. ``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM)'' hopes that one day it will get an opportunity to visit the village which now seems a distant dream.

         Each year the day comes and goes and the fact that it is the birthday of the world's first spaceman has gone unnoticed. But, this year BMM thought there would be some event at the Russian Embassy and the Russian consulate general to celebrate his birthday since in a few days programmes relating to the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight would begin. But, this has not happened.

        On April 12,2011, there will be events to mark the 50th anniv of the world's first human space flight which eight years later led to a manned lunar landing, triggering a debate between the advantages and disadvantages of manned and unmanned spaceflight..

        BMM hopes to celebrate Yuri's birthday at a gentleman's house in Cuffe Parade who says that he had the opportunity to meet Yuri when he visited Mumbai in October 1961. BMM hopes that the meeting will be useful and productive because it hopes to use the material for a blog and a possible report in The Times of India next month.

       Once again happy birthday Yuri.


       ----------------------------------------------------

       Another important space event is set to take place today. Later tonight the space shuttle Discovery will return and pass into history. After this there will be no more flights for Discovery. For this shuttle the curtains will drop around midnight (IST)

       A happy landing, weather permitting of course, and good wishes on your retirement.

   

space launch

      Here is a story about me and my passion for space exploration. This blog is on a personal note.

      In October 1961, when I was 12 and studying in Std V, my mother one morning asked me to accompany her to the junction of Warden Road and Pedder Road at the Mahalakshmi Temple junction and I agreed.

      I did not know why I was going there, but she told me it would be a surprise which would interest me even at that age. When we got to the spot I remember there were huge crowds including several kids. We all lined up on the pavement and kept looking towards Hajiali. I kept asking my mother several questions, but she there would be a surprise awaiting me.

      The moment of surprise arrived. From a distant I could hear a siren which grew louder and louder steadily. I could see that the siren came from a police vehicle, A few minutes later a convey arrived consisting of several cars and motorcycles. One chubby-faced person smiled and waved to everyone enthusiastically triggering a loud applause from the crowd which had been waiting patiently. Everyone waved back at him and clapped with excitement including me without knowing who on earth was he!

      The motorcade then moved on to Pedder Road and finally disappeared out of sight. The crowd then began to slowly disperse.

      I was curious. Whom did I wave at a few minutes ago? My mother told me that he was the first man in space----the celebrated Yuri Gagarin. I was really excited and I really believe that it was at that very moment that I was launched into a space era!!!!!!!   Space exploration has since excited and thrilled me.Mother is responsibile!!!!!!

      On April 12,1961, when Gagarin made his history I was a student of Walsingham House School, which turned into a girls' all of a sudden. The principal announced during the assembly that man had conquered space and he was Yuri Gagarin. We felt excited.

      A few years later my father went to Moscow as a guest on Air India's inaugural flight. When he returned he opened his suitcase and what did he bring for me-----a bronze emblem of Gagarin and a few other things connected with him. Each morning after my prayers, I make it a point now to place the Gagarin emblem on my forehead for a few minutes!!!!

      The year Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon  July 20, 1969--, my father did a birthday caricature of me cycling on the lunar surface---a card which I have proudly displayed in my glass case containing rocket models including the mighty and awesome Saturn V which took Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to the moon.


      My parents as you see have played a key role in making me a space buff which perhaps ultimately led to India's first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1 being launched on my birthday which is on October 22.

      Incidentally, at the very spot where I stood and waved to Gagarin that October morning at the Mahalakshmi temple junction, I saw Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins when they came to Mumbai on October 25,1969. Terrific coincidence.

       We are about to start celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight by Gagarin. On Monday, March 14, 2011  there is a Gagarin exhibition at the Russian consulate located at Napean Sea Road. I wonder if it will be open to the public.

       Today I joined an organisation called Planet Gagarin Karpov which is devoted to the first man in space. It is making a film about him which is slated for release on April 12,2011---the 50th anniv of the historical flight. I have downloaded the trailer and it seems promising. Now I am looking forward to seeing the main film and I do hope I get a dvd.

      As we celebrate the anniversary of this mission, there are two other important space-related events which are also celebrating their 50th anniversaries this year. These are the 15 minute sub orbital flight by Alan Shepherd who became the first American in space on May 15 1961, almost a month after Gagarin's accomplishment and the famous speech by John F.Kennedy on May 25,1961, declaring that America will be sending a man to the moon.

      Not much is being said about the American events, not even in the Nasa website surprisingly.

      It is a sheer coincidence that space historian John Logsdon whom I met in Hyderabad during the International Astronautical Congress in September 2007, has just published a book called ``John F. Kennedy and The Race To The Moon.''  ``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM)'' has ordered this book from Strand Book Stall and it has been told on Monday that it will be here in six weeks.

      So folks there goes my story about me and space.

       

                

Spaceplane launch---a touch of irony

        Undoubtedly, there is a touch of irony about the USAF spaceplane launch early on Sunday.

        Can you guess why?

        Here is the reason.

        When celebrations are kicking off all over the world, to mark the 50th anniv of the first manned spaceflight, the USAF for the second time in less than a year has demonstrated the technology of launching unmanned space flights.

         Jeffrey Manber, who described himself as a space geek told Russia TV: ``It takes off without people and lands without people. Nasa could no do it. As a space geek, it is fascinating.''

         The spacecraft, a miniature space shuttle, is the second orbital test vehicle (OTV-2) designated as X-37B. The first such mission lifted off on April 22,2010 and  operated for 91 million miles, 224 days, eight hours and 24 minutes. Of course once again the credit for proving this technology for the first time of course goes to the Russians which flew an unmanned space shuttle, ``Buran'' on November 15,1988. The total flying time was three hours. The Russians, however, did not pursue the project.

         Regarding the American spaceplane, it takes off vertically and lands horizontally. On Sunday, it was launched by the United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral. It is carrying out some classified experiments for the USAF and is expected to remain in orbit for about 270 days. After finishing its mission it will land like a plane at the Vandenburg Air Force Base.

        The official website of the USAF describes the spaceplane as an ``experimental test programme to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the USAF.'' It says that it has two-fold objectives. These are:-

         * Studying reusable spacecraft technologies for America's future in space.
         * Operating experiments which can be returned to and examined on earth.

         Some of the advanced technologies which are being evaluated include guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection system, avionics and high temperature structures.

         Manber feels that the mission could perhaps trigger a political fall out with both Russia and China refusing to co-operate with the US. He said that US has always been insisting that China should display greater transparency about its space programme. He said similarly the US should be open about this programme, ``As a tax payer. I would like to know. Why hide it,'' he said.

         It is worth waiting for the response of China and Russia.

ends  

Moonshot Mumbai

        Yes, it may be the age-old Armstrong statement, but in this context it is certainly significant---it is a small step, but a giant leap on to the surface of the moon.

        And this flight to the moon did not last four days, but just a few minutes. And believe it or not the journey can be completed without either a rocket or a spacecraft.

        Yes, in a way you can describe it as an astronautical feat. You may be puzzled and dazed.

         How can you achieve this?

         Drive to Worli, step into the Nehru Planetarium, go to the first floor, turn left and what greets you--a simulated lunar landscape with an astronaut standing on it. The ever-affable planetarium director, Piyush Pandey, told ``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM)'' that the aim of the moonscape was mainly to inspire kids to participate in India's space missions, especially the lunar programme. On Thursday, a few children who ``stood''  on the surface of the moon and shook hands with the astronaut said that they felt thrilled and excited.

        The design of the moonscape was conceptualised entirely by Pandey and it took shape at a workshop near Mumbai Central station. The credit for making the moon goes to a young sculptor, Kedar Jagdish Dahibarkar. His wife, Trupti, made the astronaut.

        Pandey said that the total area of the moonscape was about 80 feet and the height of the astronaut was five feet. The total cost of the project was about Rs two lakhs. Significantly, the setting up of the comes against the background of India's highly successful mission to the moon, ``Chandrayaan-1,'' the forthcoming flight, ``Chandrayaan-2,'' slated for lift off in 2013, the first privately-funded lunar mission known as the Google Lunar X Prize, and India's joint flight to the moon with Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2016 designated as MoonRise.

       Incidentally, it may be recalled that the planetarium had a programme about Chandrayaan-1 which was launched on July 17,2008. It is now screened at periodical intervals.

       Kedar told BMM that the most challenging aspect of making the moonscape was fixing the craters. ``I based it on the pics given to me by Mr Pandey and it took two months to complete it involving 20 bags of plaster or paris. Once it was done it was taken by a truck to the planetarium,'' he said.

       Trupti said that the astronaut was strong and even if somone bangs on it with force nothing will happen. 

       A great and memorable flight to the moon at the planetarium.

       The planetarium already has two moon-related items----a small model of the lunar landscape in the lobby of the planetarium and a huge pics along the staircase. In addition, there is a also a model of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft which Pandey hopes to display sometime in the near future. Perhaps, the planetarium can be partially renamed as ``moonarium.'' !!!!

        This wonderful planetarium  has taken a great moonshot and is a haven for moonstruck people like BMM.

        It is really Moonshot Mumbai.      

Hey! India does it again.

     India has done it again.

     March 3 2011 is a big day for Indian space science programme.

     The reason:  A team of scientists led by  37-year-old Kolkata-based space scientists, Dibyendu Nandi of the has attained a major breakthrough in the important field of solar science. He belongs to the Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata,

    The team has used a computer model of solar activity to explain how the sun lost its spots and solar storms for a long period. Sunspots are dark spots on the sun with strong magnetic activity. The results were published in the prestigious scientific journal, ``Nature.''

    ``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM)''  had the privelege of interacting with Nandi at Calangute in Goa during the international space climate conference in January 2011. It was great meeting him and BMM found him to be extremely affable and pleasant.

     On Wednesday, BMM was in constant touch with Nandi regarding the report which BMM was filing for the Times of India (TOI).. Prior to sending the item to the Times, BMM read it out to Nandi first for correcting factual errorts. Despite his busy sked, he patiently listened to the report and made the necessary changes. Thanks Nandi.

     BMM then alerted Toi and the editorial team responded very enthusiastically.

     The TOI report has been reproduced below: with some alternations.

     The work of the scientists has been praised by NASA as a breakthrough in generating advance knowledge of sustained good weather in space. Nasa had scheduled a conference on Thursday involving several international scientists to discuss the results. 

     BMM listened to the discussion, but the communication was getting snapped continuosly. So, BMM switched off at 1.30 a.m. hoping to hear the full audio through another link.

    Speaking to TOI from Kolkata, Nandi explained that with his work would help airline operators while they scheduled air traffic, especially on polar routes, apart from helping space agencies in their plannings. “Did you know that there is weather in space just like weather on earth? And that dark spots on the sun’s surface called sunspots can affect weather in space and can disrupt flights over the earth’s polar region?” Nandi asked rhetorically
.
   “The shorter, polar routes are preferred by airline operators because less fuel is consumed and predictions of good weather can be used to direct heavier traffic through these remote regions,” he said. 

   The research was funded by the Ramanujan fellowship of India’s Department of Science and Technology and by a grant from NASA. Others on Nandi’s team were Andres Munoz-Jaramillo from Harvard’s Smithsonian Centre For Astrophysics and Petrus Martens from Montana State University.

   Nandi explained that the sun was made up of a hot gas called plasma which tosses and turns deep within, creating magnetic fields. These fields pop out of the solar surface creating dark sunspots which have been observed systematically since Galileo trained his telescope on the sun in the early 17th Century. 

   He said that the energy output of the sun, which influences earth’s climate system, fell to low levels for a sustained period. During this time, he said, there were no storms in space, providing perfect space weather conditions. 

   “In fact it was the quietest the sun had been in almost a century and scientists started wondering what was wrong with the sun,” he told TOI. 

   The scientist said sunspots often explode, ejecting vast amounts of charged particles into space. These particles rush through the earth’s polar region, creating beautiful auroras, but also disrupting sensitive electronics of airlines and messing up their communication system. 

   Nandi said his team found that changes in a large river of hot plasma, flowing inside the sun, disrupted the formation of sunspots and distanced the previous sunspot cycle from the following one. The last sunspot cycle ended in 2007. Nandi said the delayed start of the new sunspot cycle could be a boon for India’s maiden mission to the Sun, Aditya. Nandi is a co-investigator on this Rs 40 crore mission tentatively slated for 2014.

   Congrats once again Nandi. U have done India proud.

Toast to the moon----Indian mission

         At a time when Isro faced a serious crisis because of the controversial Devas deal, it has something to cheer about thanks to the budget.

         What is the reason?  The budget for the Indian moon mission saw a hefty hike from Rs 25 crores to Rs 80 crores. The massive increase assumes significance in the context of Isro gearing up for the launch of the Rs 425-crore second moon mission. ``Chandrayaan-2,'' a joint Indo-Russian venture. While the rocket, presumably the three-stage Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), the spacecraft and the rover will be indigenous, only the lander will be the Russian contribution.

          Hopefully. if the problems relating to the Gslv, are resolved,``Chandrayaan-2'' should be launched in 2013. This is the time when even the Google Lunar X Prize is expected to lift off. Who will go first is the big question?

          Coincidentally,. the increase in the allocation for the moon mission was announced when director of the Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre, R.R.Navalgund, presented pictures taken by Chandrayaan-1 to Tifr during the National Science Day celebrations on February 28,2011. Why could not the organisers hold up these pictures and show it to the students who comprised the main audience during the science day programme

          Here is another reason for Isro to uncork the champagne bottle. The funds alloted for the human space flight programme has gone up from a mere Rs 10 crores to a whopping Rs 100 crores. According to Dr Navalgund all the background work has been done and the programme has been given the go ahead in principle. He said that the mode of implementation is being worked out.

         A note in the budget paper states that ``the proposal has been cleared by the finance ministry, the planning commission and the space commission and is currently under the process for Cabinet approval.'' Isro officials have been waiting for the green light for the last three or four years, but it is not getting activitated. One wonders whether the governments considers this an important project.

         The allocation for launch vehicle technology is Rs 1755 crores.

         The Adiya mission to the sun has been alloted Rs 40 crores.

         Great days ahead for Isro.

                   

         

To space at the Tifr

        At first they appeared disinterested and distracted. They talked, whispered and many of them really did not show much interest at all.

        Despite this the presentation went on and on. It was by the director of Isro's Space Application Centre R.R.Navalgund, at the Tifr to mark the National Science Day. The audience comprised mainly students from the nearby Kendriya Vidyalaya at Navy Nagar in Colaba who had gathered at the Homi Bhabha auditorium.

        The title of the presentation was ``Remote Sensing of the Earth and Moon,'' and Dr Navalgund told ``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM)'' that he would make it intelligible to the younger generation.But honestly though the talk was informative, it was slightly technical which failed at times to sustain the attention and interest of the young audience.

        It was for this reason that the students started losing interest and began talking among themselves, But, it must be stated that the speaker came out with a lot of exciting information about the moon. He showed three dimensional images of the lunar surface taken by Chandrayaan-1's Terrain Mapping Camera and really it seemed as though the audience was standing near the moon's craters. ``We got a volume of data from Chandrayaan-1 especially about the craters. There are craters within craters and these are known as secondary craters,'' he said. We also saw the lunar tube which could be used for human settlement.

        When the ppt ended the the auditorium was thrown open to questions, one could not really believe that the students were not listening to the lecture, There was one question after another all serious, intelligent and good ones. They were excited and thrilled to seek clarifications and put more and more questions which Dr Navalgund patiently and above all with a lot of interest.

        The q-a session revealed two important factors. First India and the US, are engaged in informal talks about the former participating in the International Space Station programme to do experiments relating to greenhouse gases and measuring them. Navalgund later told BMM that it was at a very preliminary stage and requested me not to highlight it prominently in the media. When BMM filed the story this morning for The Times of India, it did not mention this at all.
      
        Second thanks to a question put by the secretary of the India chapter of the Moon Society, Pradeep Mohandas, we came to know that the Indian Space Science Data Centre, a part of Isro, has opened its own website. When BMM reached home and accessed the site, it immediately registered and was able to access data provided by Chandrayaan-1. Other sections of this site are still under construction.Why Isro never mentioned the launch of this site, remains a mystery. So typical of Isro. Thanks to Pradeep we came to know this site has been created.  

        One thing became very clear last evening---the younger generation is very interested and excited about space missions and want to be a part of it. Why cannot Isro take advantage of this and involve them in some way or the other way as Nasa, the European Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency, Jaxa, do? For example, how many are aware that YouthSat and X-Sat, two student-related satellites will be launched this month along with the indigenous Resourcesat-2 by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. Not many. This is really unfortunate.

        This brings me to another issue. Just before the ppt started, Dr Navalgund presented lovely pictures taken by Chandrayaan-1 to Tifr.

        Cannot this be made available to the public on a payment?